Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 10 (section)

===Record 14: When I’m With You===

'''05/14/1997

'''7:30

For some reason, I was riding a train through the mountains first thing in the morning.

A look around showed the seats were mostly empty and you were sleeping next to me.

When I looked up, I saw the bright and sunny sky out the window and the mountains of Tochigi and Ibaraki in the distance.

We were on our way to the Mountain.

That was a training ground for hopeful members of the Chancellor’s Officers governed by the Emergency Teachers and the Religious League. Basically, it was where people were tested to see if they were a top-class student.

I couldn’t believe this. I was actually going there with you.

“Why does she always drag people into her business?”

The first part of the training would have us here until August. And if we did well, we would return in September for a month-long final exam.

In middle school, I heard rumors of people sometimes dying there and no one was serious about going.

The only people from our school going were you, Snowy, and me. You and I had no martial arts experience at all. I had seen in a newspaper before that Snowy’s dad was a colonel in the military that protected Tokyo. Everyone else going here would be more along those lines, I bet.

While I was wondering what to do about this, you collapsed onto your side along the seats without waking up. You had guts for someone heading into such danger.

But I had to wonder if you would have made it this far if I had refused your invitation to go. Could you only sleep like this because I was with you? No, I was being conceited.

“Maybe I should get some sleep too.”

'''Author Comment:

This would normally be where all the characters are brought together for the reader’s benefit.

But on a train where the stations are few and far between (e.g. I’ve ridden the Inbi Line from Tottori to Okayama (Tsuyama) a few times), the ride can be torture without sufficient skill at blankly watching the scenery go by.